Heavenly Kiss
by RosesFlame
Summary: Abandoned by her parents as a baby, Caelestis Basium learns she's being hunted and that there was a reason why she was left in the mortal realm.


A/N: Hey guys! I haven't written in a very long time, and so I'm kinda nervous about this story. But it's been stuck in my head for a while and so I thought I'd try to get it written. I've tried the best I could to add detail abd slow things down, but no matter how much I edit these chapters, it still feels rushed to me, so I'm sorry about that. The first few chapters may be boring (sorry about that too), but I thought it was kind of important to show some important stages in her early life, to kind of get a feel for why she is the way she is now. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy it!

Caelestis

Chapter 1:

 **July 4th, 1996 Phoenicia, NY**

The dark, cloudy sky lit up and roared with thunder, threatening to drench the earth; but it seemed as if it were waiting. Waiting for something to happen. The wind picked up and each tree in the area swayed in one direction.

Animals scurried to find a place to hide from the oncoming storm, chit-chattering among one another. Something seemed very off that day and every animal in the state of New York and perhaps surrounding states could sense it.

A field stretched out for acres, the foot-tall grass waving in the harsh wind. A large two-story house sat in the middle of the field, on the edge of the small city of Phoenicia, NY, and inside the house, shouting could be heard.

"Come on, kids, get to bed!" An elderly lady with snow white hair reprimanded the children as they continued to run around and scream, playing whatever game they created. Their cheeks bright red and their feet bare and dirty. One boy jumped out from behind a recliner and scared a couple of eight year old girls, causing them to jump and squeal as they ran to the front lobby.

A wail broke out in a nearby room and the woman sighed in exhaustion, she could feel a headache coming on and placed a hand at her temple, "I guess Wilfred is hungry again." She turned to head to the nursery, but called behind her to her husband, "Jim, can you get those hoodlums to bed? It's half an hour past their bedtime."

A balding old man reclining on a mauve sofa in the living room looked up from his newspaper, bags framed the bottom of his emerald eyes. He carefully folded the newspaper back to the way it had come and set it on the spot next to him. His cane rested against the sofa next to him. He grabbed it firmly and pushed himself up, steadying himself before he hobbled over to the group of kids, who were now huddled by the stairs near the front door, as if they were planning something, but he soon realized that they were whispering frantically. A small girl, about the age of six, saw Jim come up out of her peripheral vision and turned to him and said, "I hear a baby crying!"

"Of course you do, sweetie. Wilfred is just hungry." He ushered the other reluctant kids up the stairs to their rooms and had the older kids help the younger kids get ready for bed, but the little girl refused to go upstairs. "Anne, you mind me now, get up there to bed." Jim's voice was stern this time, but Anne ran to the window by the front door and stood on her tiptoes to try to see out of it.

"But Mr. Jim, don't you hear it?" She turned to face him and pointed out the window. "We heard a baby crying outside! And it doesn't sound like Wilfred's cries!"

Jim strained his old ears as he hobbled over to the door. He couldn't hear anything until he was only a few inches away from the door. He grabbed the doorknob with a wrinkled hand and opened it slowly. The cries became louder and clearer and, true to Anne's word, there was a baby in a small wicker basket.

Surprised, since this hadn't happened very often, Jim turned to Anne, "Go get Elsie. I'm afraid I can't pick the baby up, and you're too little." Anne ran into the nursery next to Jim and Elsie's bedroom, startling the old woman as she finished tucking Wilfred back into his crib.

"Good Lord, child, is something wrong?"

"There's a baby outside and grandpa can't pick it up!" Anne ran back out of the room, with Elsie on her heels.

Jim backed out of the way as Elsie reached the door. She stooped and gently picked up the basket with both hands.

The first thing about the baby that grabbed her attention, was it's elongated ears. Black fuzz covered it's head and tearful sky blue eyes looked up at the elderly woman. "Poor thing. The long ears must be a birth defect." Elsie shook her head disapprovingly, "The mother probably didn't want it because of that." She sighed and muttered as she turned to head back into the house, "Mothers nowadays!"

Elsie shooed Anne to bed and assured her that the baby would be fine before she and Jim took the baby to the nursery. As Elsie sat the basket down on a changing table, she noticed how unnatural the baby's blue eyes were. Of course a lot of people had light blue eyes, but there was just something different about this baby's eyes. The baby was no longer crying, but watched Elsie with fear evident in its eyes.

Elsie carefully pulled the baby out of the basket and the thin blankets it was wrapped in and noticed it wore a thin, short gown, and a cloth diaper underneath. Jim came up to her side with a camera in hand. Elsie took it from him and snapped photos of the baby to put in its file. She handed the camera back to him, "What a strange child," she muttered as she stroked a finger against the baby's soft cheek. Something white caught her eye behind the little silky pillow in the basket. She pulled it out and realized it was a folded up card.

On the front of the card, it read "Caelestis, born on July 4th, 1996 at 2:12am". Elsie opened the card to read, _"Thank you for taking in our daughter. Please raise her with love and care. It tears my heart leaving her behind. But some unfortunate circumstances have come up and we have to leave her here to protect her. Please assure her that we love her and tell her when she's old enough that we will be back for her when we're able to escape."_

Elsie laid the card on the table, feeling a little guilty about her accusations about the baby's parents, and picked up Caelestis. "You poor thing. I was too quick to judge. I wish your parents had left a little more detail so that we can call the police and help them."

Jim took the camera to their bedroom, where it would sit until they left for town to get the pictures developed. Elsie pulled a rocking chair closer to her and rocked Caelstis, who began to whimper, "Don't worry, dear. Jim is going to make you a bottle. I'm sure you're hungry." Caelestis seemed to have understood her, for she stopped whimpering and continued to stare at the elderly lady.

"Caelestis...I think that's Latin for Heavenly. Such a sweet, unique name."

 **August 15th, 2001**

Five year old Caelestis ducked down below the bus window so the other kids wouldn't see her. It was her first day of kindergarten and her stomach twisted in knots at the thought of stepping off the bus and facing all the other kids. A rough hand grabbed her arm and pulled her up, "Come on, Kyle, you have to get off." The lady jerked Caelestis off her seat and made her step off the bus so quickly that Caelestis didn't get the chance to correct the lady about her name.

The bus drove off immediately, leaving the smell of diesel in the air. Caelestis nervously trailed behind the other students and watched as the big brick building came closer. "Hey," Caelestis turned to the small voice next to her to find a girl a few inches taller than her with curly blonde hair had dropped behind the other students to talk to her. "Why are your ears so long?"

The girl's blunt question made Caelestis' face burn in embarrassment, "I don't know. I was born like this." Caelestis watched her feet as they walked to the school, trying to avoid what she thought was a judging look on the girl's face.

The other girl smiled brightly, "Well they make you look really cool! Kinda like a magical elf like from Lord of the Rings or something. My brother has been reading me those books and I'm a big fan now. I think it's so cool that I just met a real life elf today!" The girl, who Caelestis found out was named Cassie, continued to babble. She demanded that Caelestis sit with her in class and told her that they'll do everything together.

Caelestis' heart soared. _"My very first friend! She doesn't think I'm a freak!"_ Her first day of school was surprisingly a success.

The first few months flew by, and for the first time in Caelestis' life, she felt accepted and happy. The two girls had many sleepovers, and called one another frequently, and Caelestis even showed Cassie something she had never shown anyone before. One day, she and Cassie locked the door to the closet in the kitchen and turned on the light. Caelestis turned her hands over, palms up, and they began to glow green. Cassie was in awe. She reached out to touch Caelestis' hands and quickly pulled back, "That was weird! It felt tingly!" Both girls laughed and from that day, Caelestis continued to experiment with her magic.

Until one disastrous day in December…

 **December 16th, 2001**

"Mrs. Elsie, where are my shoes? I can't find them!" Caelestis called from the landing of the stairs on the second floor. She didn't receive an answer. All the other kids had already boarded the school bus and Caelestis needed Elsie to take her to school. An eerie silence wafted through the house and she slowly descended the stairs. Something wasn't right, she could feel it. She stood at the bottom of the stairs for a minute, listening for any kind of movement. Goosebumps rose on her arms as an acrid smell reached her nose and, at first, she couldn't figure out what it smelled like. _"It almost smells like the times when Mr. Jim would use his torch to burn some hotdogs…"_ Realization dawned, dread filling her core as she raced to the kitchen. When she reached the doorway, she froze, both hands clutching each side of it. She felt sick to her stomach, her heart began to race, and she felt a light coat of cold sweat forming on her skin.

In front of her, Jim laid on the floor, his eyes closed and his face peaceful. But Elsie seemed to have fallen on top of him, a corded phone in one hand, and several knives in her back. Just a foot away from the two, was a gas stove with boiling tea sitting on one of the burners, flames engulfing it. Each burner was turned up high and pieces of paper had been placed on one of them and trailed to the counter. The flames had followed along the paper and had reached the cabinets and Elsie's favorite red-checkered curtains.

 _"I've got to do something, but what?! I don't know what to do!"_ Tears pricked her eyes, and as realization dawned on her that the only people she ever thought of as parents were dead, and her home was on fire, she began to shake. Caelestis placed her hands on her head, her fingers digging into her scalp. _"I don't know what to do! I'm scared!"_ Tears freely ran down her cheeks now and she fell to the floor, her body shaking from her crying. _"I feel like I'm going to explode. My body feels so hot. I can't take it anymore!"_ Caelestis screamed as loud as she could, hoping that someone would hear her. The ground around her shook, and she heard loud splintering and crashes, but she couldn't stop screaming; she couldn't get the images of Jim and Elsie out of her head. She couldn't stop the fire. As her voice became hoarse, she suddenly felt very weak; she opened her eyes to see smoke smoldering, the rest of the house completely obliterated, then all went black.

"...and in Phoenicia, investigators are at the scene of Ellie and Jim's Home of Hope, where an explosion was, oddly not heard, but seen for miles. Locals say that what they saw was a huge green light shooting up into the sky. Now on to Tom, who's in Phonecia at the scene now."

"Thank you, Carol. A few bodies were found under all the debris. Two of them were an elderly couple, one of them, a man, seemed untouched, but the woman with him had been stabbed several times. And the investigators have found evidence that a fire is the best explanation for the destroyed home. But we still don't know where the green light that everyone around here is claiming to have seen came from."

"You said there were a few bodies, and so what happened to the others?"

"There was a third body, a young girl about the age of five, but she is alive and somehow she doesn't have many injuries. She's currently being treated at the Phoenicia Hospital."

"Okay, thanks Tom. Keep us updated on everything there. Now onto the weather…"

A yellow Gargoyle picked up the remote and changed the channel. "That was weird…"

"Indeed, it was." The yellow Gargoyle, along with an elderly Gargoyle sitting in the recliner next to him and a dog Gargoyle who laid on the ground on the other side of him, all looked behind them to see two men walking over to them. One man wore his short brown hair in a small, low ponytail. The other man, the one who had spoken, was very clean cut compared to the other man. He had blond hair and glasses sitting in front of blue eyes. Both men wore business suits; they looked as if they had just come from a meeting.

"Owen, I think we may have a new hobby. I'd like to track that girl down and...learn more about her."

Owen raised an eyebrow at his employer, "Mr. Xanatos, are you planning to experiment on her?"

Xanatos feigned innocence and held up his hands in defense, "No, of course not!" He turned serious before stating, "But I do need to talk to Fox before I say anything else about my plans. Although I don't think she'll have a problem with it…"

Xanatos walked back to his office, deep in thought, but Owen stayed behind a minute longer, watching the screen on the TV, which now played an old cartoon, but images from the news about Phoencia still played through his head. _"This is strange. Why would anyone, especially the Third Race, leave their young child all alone in a world where virtually no other like them exists?"_ Finally, he followed behind Xanatos to further discuss that mysterious girl.


End file.
